After students took pictures today in class, we discussed verbs using the lesson and notes available under the “Grammar” section of the website.

Homework for tonight is to read Books 6, 7, and 8 of the Odyssey (4 – Books 6, 7, and 8) and complete the reading guide (Books 6, 7, and 8 Reading Guide). We’ll talk about it tomorrow in class.

I forgot to remind you today that I sponsor the Gay-Straight Alliance, and that we’re having our first meeting Wednesday during lunch! Everyone is welcome to come!

Please remember that tomorrow is Picture Day! If your parents would like to order pictures, bring that order for to the photographer.

We began today by discussing Calypso’s episode of the Odyssey. Next, we did a lesson on using the PIE structure to construct paragraphs (The PIE Method for Building Paragraphs). We listened to this song from Calypso’s perspective, and students began practicing this style of writing with a paragraph comparing the song and the book.

Homework for tonight is to listen to this podcast and answer these questions (Podcast Homework) – you will finally get to know the answer to the mystery of why the sea is described as “wine-dark!”

Here is the score distribution for the quiz we took today; the average score was an 84.3. If you scored below a 70 (before extra credit), you must come in during lunch tutorials on Friday to talk about what you missed.

I hope everyone had a great weekend!

We continued our study of the Odyssey with a discussion of Telemachus’s journey to find his father. Students spent the rest of their period taking the literary devices and nouns quiz. If you failed that quiz, I would like for you to come in to tutorials on Friday to go over what you missed and think about how to do better for next week.

Homework for tonight was to read Book 5 of the Odyssey (3 – Book 5) and complete the reading guide (Book 5 Reading Guide).

Some important reminders:

• If you have not yet brought your class community item, please try to do that within the next week or so.
• Your first summer reading essay is due on Friday (but you may turn it in early if you would like).
• You will need a computer to do tomorrow’s homework.
• Yearbook pictures are on Wednesday – please come dressed in your best and bring money if you would like to order copies!
• We will have another extra credit film this Friday afternoon – it will be the first half of the film version of the Odyssey!

Woohoo! We made it through the week!

We spent half of today’s class period talking about the beginning of the Odyssey. The other half of class was devoted to giving you a leg up on individual work – your homework for the weekend (due Monday), which was to read Books 2, 3, and 4 of the Odyssey (2 – Books 2, 3, and 4) and complete the reading guide (Books 2, 3, and 4 Reading Guide), and your studying for your literary devices and nouns quiz on Monday.

I have enjoyed having you all for these first few days – you’re a smart, sweet bunch of students, and I’m looking forward to our year together!

A few important reminders:

• If you have not done so already, please have your parent read the syllabus with you and fill out the acknowledgement form on the website.
• Please bring your classroom community item some time within the next two weeks.
• You may turn in your summer reading essays now (ahead of the deadline) if you would like.
• Students will have a quiz over literary devices and nouns on Monday.
• You may earn 10 points of extra credit on that quiz by coming to a viewing of Troy tomorrow, from 3:30 to 5:30 PM.

Homework for tonight is to read Book 1 of the Odyssey and complete the reading guide (due tomorrow): 1 – Book 1 and Book 1 Reading Guide.

We did a lesson in class today over the events leading up to the Odyssey. Here is that presentation: The Odyssey Schema Guide.

We are now officially more than half-way done with the first week! 🙂

We started today by passing out blue and red folders, which you will use to organize your vocabulary are grammar papers throughout the year. I collected homework and summer reading assignments (from those of you who wanted to turn them in early).

Next, we talked about the syllabus, located on the “Syllabus” portion of our class website. Your homework for tonight is to read over that with your parent(s) and submit the form below to acknowledge it.

Finally, we did a short lesson on nouns. As a reminder, that lesson and handout are available under the “Grammar” section of the website, in addition to other study resources.

We began today by talking about procedures for starting each day in class. Please make sure that you sign in on the attendance sheet and that you take the papers that I have laid out for you. If you were absent, you can get copies of what you missed by going to the bulletin board next to the SmartBoard.

Your summer reading essays are due soon! Here are the rubrics that I will use to grade them: Summer Reading Essay Rubrics revised 2016. The first one must be submitted to me by Friday, September 2. The second one must be submitted to me by Friday, September 9. You may begin submitting them to me tomorrow, if you would like. Both essays together are worth one major grade (so 10% of your cycle grade).

We also discussed the procedure for quizzes in English. You will have a vocabulary and grammar quiz on most Mondays, including this upcoming week (August 29). Your quiz for next week will cover the list of literary devices available under the “vocabulary” section of this website, as well as nouns (which we will discuss tomorrow).

Students will have the opportunity to earn 10 points of extra credit on this quiz by coming to an after-school viewing of an edited version of the film Troy this Friday, from 3:30 PM to 5:30 in my room (316).

Finally, please remember that your hero’s journey diagram is due tomorrow. Late assignments will not be accepted. Please show me your very best work.

Welcome to the new school year! I was so happy to meet you all yesterday – I think we’re going to have a good time together over the next 10 months.

On Monday, we began with a discussion of the Hero’s Journey by watching this video.

Students then began to work on The Hero’s Journey Diagram Assignment in a piece of literature, which will be due at the beginning of class on Wednesday.